Currently, the Internet provides access to a vast amount of information. Generally speaking, a user can access a resource on the communications network by two principle means. The user can access a particular resource directly, either by typing an address of the resource (typically an URL or Universal Resource Locator, such as www.webpage.com) or by clicking a link in an e-mail or in another web resource. Alternatively, the user may conduct a search using a search engine to locate a resource of interest. The latter is particularly suitable in circumstances where the user knows a topic of interest, but does not know the exact address of the resource he is interested in.
There are numerous search engines available to the user. Some of these are considered to be general purpose search engines (such as Yandex™, Google™, Yahoo™ and the like). Others are considered to be vertical search engines—i.e. search engines dedicated to a particular topic of search—such as Momondo™ search engine dedicated to searching flights.
Irrespective of which search engine is used, it is known in the art that the search engine is generally configured to receive a search query comprising a single or multiple search terms from a user, which can be submitted by the user from a variety of client devices (desktop, laptop, notebook, smartphone, tablets, etc.) in which a variety of applications can be running. The search engine then performs the search and identifies a plurality of documents matching the one or more search terms.
Typically, the search engine presents the search results to the user on a search engine results page (SERP) generated by the search engine. The search results are organized on the page in a specific manner determined by the search engine. Usually, the search results are organized in a generally vertical list in which the most relevant search result is presented first (i.e., at the top of the SERP), followed by the next most relevant search result (i.e., immediately below the most relevant search result), and so on. A generic description of a conventional SERP may be that published by Google Inc. found at www.googleguide.com/results_page.html, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety for all purposes.
In order to determine the sequence in which the search results will appear on the SERP, the search engine generally ranks search results according to their relevance using a ranking algorithm which may take into account various factors indicative of relevance. This is known in the art as query specific ranking, or “QSR”. A fuller discussion of search engine ranking concepts and operations may be found in International Application Publication No. WO 2015/004607 A2, published Jan. 15, 2015, entitled “Computer-Implemented Method of and System for Searching an Inverted Index Having a Plurality of Posting Lists” (the “'607 Application”, which is incorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes. As is discussed in the '607 Application, one of the ways in which a search engine system derives a query specific ranking is via information, such as click-through data described in that Application, related to users' interactions with search results provided in respect of specific search queries. Click-through data is not the only type of information related to users' interactions with search results available to search engine systems to improve on QSR derivation. Other information, such as that related to users' cursor movements and users' gaze tracking, is also conventionally available to search engine systems for this purpose.
While conventional methods of organizing search results on a SERP according to their QSR are adequate and of deriving a QSR itself are adequate for their intended purposes, additional improvements are possible and might be useful in certain circumstances.